In years past, copywriters most often worked on direct mail campaigns, print advertisements in newspapers and magazines, flyers, billboards and similar printed materials. These days, however, print advertisements have taken a backseat to digital marketing. You are just as likely to find a copywriter hard at work composing an email blast as you are to find one typing up a sales brochure.
Indeed, sales copy can take many forms, including the following:
- Static pages and blogs on websites
- Search engine and social media ads
- Organic posts on social media
- TV and radio commercials
- E-newsletters and email marketing
- Product descriptions
- Video scripts
- eBooks
Note that not all copy is overly “salesy." A large portion of sales copy is primarily informational or entertaining, with a subtle push to raise brand awareness or direct readers to the company’s products or services. By making the bulk of a piece educational or entertaining, a copywriter can hold the reader’s attention and encourage the reader to form an emotional connection to the brand.
For instance, consider Alice, a fictitious copywriter who has been hired to write a blog for a veterinary clinic. Alice knows that responsible pet parents are often preoccupied with their animals’ health and well-being, and that they frequently search for actionable information they can use to help their animals enjoy a better quality of life. She also knows that her client wants to increase appointments for their pet behavioral training service.
So Alice writes a blog titled “10 Signs Your Dog Is Bored," which includes a discussion of the destructive behaviors that dogs might engage in when they get bored. The bulk of the piece is informational, designed to help puppy parents take better care of their animals.
Toward the end of the blog, Alice includes a call to action (CTA) that informs readers that the vet clinic offers behavioral training that can help bored dogs curb their destructive behaviors. It invites readers to book an appointment with the dog trainer. This blog works because it keeps readers engaged throughout the copy, while offering the client’s services as an effective solution to their problems.
Copywriting can be a fun career because it allows professionals to exercise their creativity. However, copywriters must always keep their client’s preferences and requirements in mind, and they must work within those boundaries. It is also important for a copywriter to ensure that the content fits the client’s brand voice and meets the general expectations for the client’s industry.
